Posts Tagged ‘fruits and vegetables’

Guest Blog by Sheila Sjolander

October 26th, 2012

It’s that time of year again.  It is October, the pink ribbon shows up and you can find opportunities to buy just about anything created in pink; even small appliances.  You know pink has truly taken hold when you see men at the gym wearing pink workout gear and football players wearing pink shoes.  There can be so much promotion of the pink items that there is a danger of losing sight of what that pink ribbon actually represents. 

October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month is a month dedicated to remembrance and awareness.  As you go about your daily lives this month please take a few moments to remember . . .

Please remember loved ones we lost to breast cancer and the valiant families and loved ones who supported them.  Please spend some extra time with a survivor.  I am grateful that my grandma, my aunt, and my dear friend from high school, all survived their battles with breast cancer.

Remember that over 3,900 mothers, sisters, wives, girlfriends and daughters in Arizona were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009.   And know that men also get breast cancer; 64 men were diagnosed in 2009. 

Remember that while the race to a cure continues, we still lose too many Arizonans to breast cancer each year.  During 2009 Arizona lost 701 women and 8 men to breast cancer.

Be aware that getting screened regularly is key; early detection of cancer saves lives.  Lack of health insurance does not have to get in the way of getting screened.  The Well Woman HealthCheck Program provides breast cancer screening and diagnostics to uninsured women in Arizona. 

Be aware that you can lower your risk of getting breast cancer through eating vegetables and fruits, maintaining a healthy weight, and being physically active.  Research has shown increasing evidence for physical activity as a cancer prevention strategy, along with avoiding postmenopausal weight gain.[1]

Be aware of resources that you can use and share with your family and friends. 

Be aware that as of August 2, 2012, uninsured women in Arizona who have been diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer may be eligible for help through the Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Program.

In addition to taking care of yourself and your loved ones, you can take an active role in multiple events throughout Arizona that focus on breast cancer.  Many ADHS staff will participate in the upcoming Making Strides Against Breast Cancer at Tempe Beach Park on October 27.  If taking a walk with thousands of other dedicated people is just not your style, there is something you can do to support getting uninsured Arizona women screened for breast cancer.  A pink ribbon license plate was created several years ago to support the Well Woman HealthCheck Program.  The license plate costs $25, and $17 of that supports breast and cervical cancer screening for Arizona’s uninsured women. 

October is no longer just the month for falling temperatures and Halloween decorations; it has become the month of pink.  I invite you to take a moment to remember the significance of all those pink ribbons and to be aware of active steps you can take to make a difference; for you, your family and Arizona.


[1] Fat or fit:  The joint effects of physical activity, weight gain, and body size on breast cancer risk.  Cancer, Volume 118, Issue 19, pages 4860-4868, October 2012

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Do Yourself A Favor in 2012

January 4th, 2012

Life is a precious gift.  None of us knows long our gift will last, so it’s important to make the most of every day.  That means doing everything you can to stay healthy by eating well and exercising regularly.  A lot of folks will say – I’m stuck with my health because of my genes, or my doctor can’t do anything to help me.   The truth is, half your health depends upon your choices.  Only 20 percent of health is hereditary, 20 percent comes from your environment, and 10 percent is dependent on your doctor.  The bottom line – your health is largely in your own hands. 

Meet Matt Gainey. Matt works at the Department of Health Services.  About 3 years ago, he was tired of how he felt and looked.  He started walking at lunch, added more fruits and vegetables to his diet.  He didn’t notice a change immediately, but he kept going.  He wanted to feel better. 

As his energy increased, Matt added more to his routine – sit ups at night. He cut out soda and reduced the processed food he ate, like cookies and chips.  He started paying attention to what he ate, what he did and what he weighed – things he’d never really noticed before, even though diabetes and heart disease run in his family. 

Pretty soon Matt was taking longer walks – he changed from walking to running. He added push-ups and free weights to his evening activities.  Even when it’s hot, I see Matt running wind sprints on top of the parking garage. 

The changes paid off; Matt lost 160 pounds.  He has more energy and sleeps better.  Of course, he did have to buy new pants – the old ones were 9 sizes too big! 

As you can see with Matt’s story – you can change your bad habits.  It doesn’t take a miracle or a fortune – and you don’t have to do it alone. 

If you want to change your diet and activities, eatwellbewell.org can help you choose healthier foods. For example, switching to whole grain foods and adding fruits and vegetables will increase your fiber, give you more vitamins and let you eat less to feel full.  

For ideas to helping you increase activity and for healthy recipes on the website go to eatwellbewell.org. You can even have them emailed to you each week.  Myplate.gov helps you decide the right balance of foods to eat. 

There’s a worksite wellness website (azhealthyworksites.com), if you want to corral your coworkers into getting healthy in 2012. 

The Arizona Smokers’ Helpline will help you stop smoking.  Online (ashline.org) or by phone (800-55-66-222), ASHLine provides medication, tips and coaching to help you get through the urges – all for free.  There’s also an iPhone and Facebook app. 

So when you wake up tomorrow in the New Year – know that you have the power to make a change.  You have the power to choose how healthy you will be for the rest of your life.  Go for it!

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Transforming Communities

June 8th, 2011

The CDC released their grant guidance for the upcoming Community Transformation Grants a couple of weeks ago.  The objective of the grant is to support the implementation (and evaluation) of evidence-based community preventive health activities to reduce chronic disease rates, prevent the development of secondary conditions, address health disparities, and develop a stronger evidence base for effective prevention programming.  Counties with a population of over 500,000 (Maricopa, Pima) can apply for grants on their own while smaller counties need to apply as a coalition along with their state health department.  This grant application has a funding range of between $500K – $10M per year and 50% of the funding must be subcontracted to partners.

There are two types of applications: “Capacity Building” (broad policy, environmental, programmatic and infrastructure changes); and “Implementing Interventions to Create Healthier Communities” (mandatory areas are Tobacco Free Living, Active Living and Health Eating, and Increased Use of High Impact Quality Clinical Preventive Services).  Maricopa County signed a letter of intent this week to apply for “Capacity Building”, Pima will go for “Implementing Interventions to Create Healthier Communities” and we will apply along with the other 13 counties for the Implementation grant.

We’re still in the planning stages, but our collaborative proposal with the 13 counties would focus on: 1) Increasing the availability of healthful foods in institutional settings, workplaces etc.; 2) Improving statewide nutrition and physical activity; 3) Increasing physical activity opportunities in schools; 4) Implementing policies to support breastfeeding in workplaces etc.; 5) Increasing baby friendly hospitals; 6) Incentivizing the purchase of fruits and vegetables; and 7) Increasing bicycling and walking for pleasure and transportation.

There will be objectives under each of these goals, but you get the idea.  The general approach is to use incentives and partnerships to drive change, not regulations.  Final drafts for the grant application are due July 8 and the submission deadline is July 15.

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AZ “Putting Prevention to Work”

May 16th, 2011

Last year we received funding from CDC to implement the Communities Putting Prevention to Work, which aims to achieve broad reaching, highly impactful, and sustainable change to reduce chronic disease burden associated with obesity and tobacco.

This week CDC notified us that Arizona is a “high performing” state. What does this mean? CDC will soon be visiting Arizona providing additional evaluation support to determine whether or not our program will be used as a “best practice” example for other states. Why did Arizona receive this award? In just 15 months, our team has leveraged our grant resources to improve physical activity and nutrition and cut tobacco use in Arizona schools, hospitals, worksites, and childcare facilities. Here are few examples of what the team has accomplished so far:

  • Trained over 20 hospitals and 2000 nurses on maternity care practices that encourage mothers to breastfeed and keep breastfeeding.
  • Helped create healthy schools where students can be physically active and have access to healthy foods, like fruits and vegetables.
  • Trained more than 200 school staff and partners to assess their nutrition and physical activity programs and policies using the CDC’s School Health Index.
  • Inspired over 500 parents, teachers, and administrators to create healthy change at their school with our new School Health Advisory Council Video.
  • Helped schools examine barriers that keep students from walking and biking to school safely by completing our online assessment, the Active School Neighborhood Checklist.

Imagine how many more Arizonans our team will impact with 9 more months to go! Congrats to our Nutrition and Physical Activity and their CPPW team!

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AZ a National Runner-up for Nutrition Pilot

September 1st, 2010

An Arizona team from ADHS and ADES put together a great application for the new USDA pilot program called the Healthy Incentives Pilot, which provides incentives to encourage low-income folks to eat more fruits and vegetables. Massachusetts came in first and got the grant, but our applications came in second.  The pilot program would have  researched whether incentives for participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly Food Stamps) would lead to eating healthier food.   For every dollar participants spent on fruits and vegetables using their SNAP Electronic Benefit Transfer cards, 30 cents would have been added to their benefit balance, thus cutting the cost of fruits and vegetables.  Thank you all for the hard work putting together the application.  Our work isn’t in vain because we will always have our template for future opportunities.

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Yet Another Obesity Call to Action

August 19th, 2010

You probably think I sound like a broken record because I’m always writing about obesity…  but it really is the dominant public health issue of our time.  Last week, the CDC released its latest Vital Signs report called “State-Specific Obesity Prevalence Among Adults – United States, 2009,”…  which finds that nine states had an obesity rate of 30 percent or higher in 2009. In comparison, no state had an obesity rate of 30% or more 10 years ago.  The report also finds that people who are obese incurred $1,429 per person more in medical costs every year when compared to people of healthy weight, and that the nation’s total medical costs of obesity were $147 billion in 2008.  OK that’s the problem- so what’s the solution?

 

The solution is a combination of public policy changes and community planning, combined with better education and personal responsibility.  For example, people need to eat more fruits and vegetables and fewer foods high in fat and sugar; drink more water instead of sugary drinks; be more physically active; and watch less TV.  As a society, we need to promote policies and programs at school, at work and in the community that make the healthy choice the easy choice.  You can read a lot more on the CDC’s Vital Signs Adult Obesity website.

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2010 American Fitness Report

June 2nd, 2010

Which city do you think is overall more fit and healthy, Phoenix or Pittsburgh.  I won’t give you the answer, you’ll have to go to this year’s The ACSM American Fitness Index Report at  http://www.americanfitnessindex.org/ to get the answer.  They put this report out every year to help city planners, policy makers, health educators, and other professionals understand how the health of the city, residents and community assets that support healthy lifestyles compare to other cities nationwide. The report includes health indicators like the percentage of people who exercise regularly, maintain a healthy weight, eat the recommended daily servings of fruits and vegetables, have access to health care, have health insurance, and don’t smoke. Environmental (community) factors included the availability of parks, walking/bike trails and public transportation.  I will tell you that we do better on personal health indicators than on community indicators.

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